So many people of all political persuasions were calling for fresh ideas at the White House that it hardly seemed surprising when White House chief of staff Andrew Card resigned today. It sends a good message that the president is willing to try something new in response to his sagging poll numbers, rather than resist change. That said, why promote budget director Josh Bolten? Maybe he’s a great, loyal, competent guy, but that just reminds everybody of what a budget buster this administration and Congress have been. And, why, oh, why, can’t the one who goes ever be the one who really deserves to go, Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld?
Posted by Rhonda Holman
Sen. George Allen, R-Va., one of the many Republicans pondering the presidency, has made a provocative suggestion for how to keep members of Congress from blowing their budget deadline every year: Withhold their paychecks. “There’s a great need for fiscal responsibility in Washington,” he said. “It’s absurd that a full-time legislature at the Capitol can’t get their job done by October 1st. There is no excuse why this can’t get done on time.” Of course, note Allen’s critics, timing isn’t everything: The senator was among those who recently voted to raise the federal debt ceiling to $9 trillion.
Posted by Rhonda Holman
Creekstone Farms is suing the U.S. Department of Agriculture for refusing to allow the Arkansas City processor to test all its beef for mad cow disease. Creekstone wants to exceed federal and industry testing practices to ease the fears of skittish foreign customers such as the Japanese.
The issue is not whether blanket testing is necessary to ensure safety — everyone, including Creekstone, agrees it’s not — but whether a company should be able to go above and beyond federal guidelines to meet the needs of its customers.
Why shouldn’t it be able to do that?
Posted by Randy Scholfield
Were Russian President Vladimir Putin’s eyes lying when President Bush famously looked into them and liked what he saw? The world got another reason to wonder last week, with the news of an American military report that Russian spies passed information to Iraq about the 2003 invasion and U.S. troop movements. Even if the report is accurate, that doesn’t mean Putin or other top Russian leaders were involved; Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice is right to try to find out. But none of this bodes well for U.S-Russia cooperation on Iran’s nuclear ambitions.
Posted by Rhonda Holman
Here’s Garrison Keillor’s humorous take on how the president could improve his approval rating:
“If Mr. Bush wanted to reverse his slide, he could do it with a phone call to his vice president. Tell him, ‘Hey, Gunner, I’m sending over your resignation. Sign it and leave the building immediately, and don’t take any floppies with you.’ Mr. Cheney would have a grand mal seizure right there, and be taken away to a sanitarium, and then Mr. Bush could get 1) Newt Gingrich, 2) John McCain, 3) Jeb Bush, 4) Rudolph Giuliani — take his pick. America needs a No. 2 who wouldn’t give Americans a coronary if he became No. 1. The top story on the news that night is ‘Gunner Dumped as Veep,’ and a fresh breeze blows through Washington, and the American people perk up and imagine that the Current Occupant is in charge and able to connect the dots.”
Posted by Melissa Cooley
One should read into the U.S. Supreme Court’s request to rehear arguments in Kansas’ death penalty case with extreme caution. It might mean that new Justice Samuel Alito needs the benefit of a rehearing to break a tie. It might mean no such thing. Still, the request indicates that the law’s constitutionality isn’t a slam dunk at this point. For that, state lawmakers can blame their predecessors, who ignored then-Attorney General Carla Stovall’s warning more than a decade ago that the newly revived death penalty had a problem. Meanwhile, nine death sentences, no executions. Hard to believe this is what Kansans expected by this point.
Posted by Rhonda Holman
The Inuit people of the Arctic remain in tune with their environment in a way that is foreign to the world’s growing urban population. That’s why the environmental changes they are witnessing should serve as a warning to the rest of the world as to what global warming could bring. Here’s one anecdote from a sobering article in The Washington Post:
“Villagers say the shrinking ice floes mean they see hungry polar bears more frequently. In the Hudson Bay village of Ivujivik, Lydia Angyiou, a slight woman of 41, was walking in front of her 7-year-old boy last month when she turned to see a polar bear stalking the child. To save him, she charged with her fists into the 700-pound bear, which slapped her twice to the ground before a hunter shot it, according to the Nunatsiaq News.”
Posted by Melissa Cooley
